Strings That Tie To You
by Queen Dopplepoppleous
Summary: Lee and Tenten make a deal, he'll help her train for the jounin exam while she helps him capture sakura's heart. pairings include nejitenlee, and briefly kibahina, inocho, asukure, shikatem and probably some more later on. good times.
1. The Deal

This is the result of an art trade with a talented friend from deviant art. She drew me kurenai, and I wrote a team gai love traingle. Well, it's getting there anyway.

And, as always, i don't own Naruto.

Please enjoy

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**Strings that Tie To You – Chapter 1: The Deal**

She walked through the trees toward the village, rubbing her upper arms. Taking a page from Lee's rule book, she had decreed every time she missed her target she would do 200 pushups. She had only missed 3 times out of 100, but the pushups really added up, and now she was sore and tired and rethinking her plan.

"But if it'll help me get stronger…" she said to herself as she stretched her arms out over her head. She had to get better. Neji had just been promoted to jounin, and it would be harder than ever to impress him, get him to notice her, if not as a woman then at least as a ninja worthy of his acknowledgement, and someone he'd willingly want on his team. They had worked together for years, not because he had wanted to, but because they were assigned to. Now that he was a jounin the only way they'd work together is if he wanted to work with her. He had never really let her know how he felt about her fighting style or skills, or even how he felt about her as a person, so there was really no way of knowing if she'd ever work with him again.

"Why do I care so much?" She wondered aloud, frustrated with her infatuation towards the coldest man she'd ever met.

"Care about what Tenten-chan?" She looked over to see Lee sitting on a stump not 50 yards away from her. While it wasn't surprising to see Lee out in the forest alone training, it was unusual to see him sitting thoughtfully at any time.

"Oh, you know, about not taking the Jounin examination," she lied quickly, knowing Lee would easily believe it. He nodded sagely.

"I know what you mean. It's hard to not dwell on it a little, especially with Neji now a rank above us," he sounded more than just slightly bitter, but snapped out of it quickly, smiling brightly at her, "But no matter," he jumped up, "We'll train harder and catch up to him soon, right Tenten-chan?" She couldn't help but smile at his exuberant enthusiasm.

"Right Lee-san." She almost told him about her newly instated "rule", then thought better of it, just incase she wanted to change or do away with it. She didn't want him looking down on her, too. Instead she asked, "What are you doing out here by yourself, not training?" His large smile waned as his face fell downward.

"Sakura-chan rejected me again. I though we had made some real progress together, but," he fell back onto the stump, "it almost seems like she'll never give me a chance. Tenten frowned. As odd as her teammate was, she hated seeing him so dejected.

"The Lee I know has never given up. Come on, there's got to be some way to win her over. What does she like?" Lee looked at her with his wide eyes, a blank look on his face. She sighed, "You've been pursuing her for three years now and you don't know what she likes?" Lee's face fell again as his head drooped. Gah, he looked so pitiful sometimes, and Tenten had a soft heart when it came to her teammates.

"Listen, how about I help you. I'll go ask around, see what she's into, then let you know what I find out." Ridiculous happiness took over Lee's body.

"Really, Tenten-chan? You'd do that for me?"

"Sure."

"But how will I repay you?" He looked very pensive for a few seconds before slamming his right fist into his left palm, "I know! I'll train with you so you can be reunited with Neji-san!" Tenten's face got pink.

"How about we just work on passing the next jounin exam?" She countered, knowing it would be more obvious that she liked Neji if she flat-out denied wanting to be reunited with him. Lee smiled and jumped up off the stump, thrusting out a hand.

"Deal." They shook once, firmly, and then Tenten turned to leave.

"Hey! Where're you going?" She looked back at Lee and pointed toward the village, "I was going to go ask around about Sakura-san."

"Oh, that is so like you Tenten-chan, always thinking of others before yourself. But we must train now!" She gingerly touched her left upper arm and shook her head.

"No, I offered to help you first. We'll start training tomorrow."

"Well, do you mind if _I_ train?" He asked so sincerely, like she would be offended if he trained while she wasn't due to his promise to help make her stronger. She wasn't sure if she should laugh at him or hug him, so she opted for smiling and nodding.

"Go ahead Lee, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye Tenten-chan!"

It wasn't until she got to the center of the village that she realized she didn't know where to begin finding things out about Sakura. She sat on an open bench near Ichiraku's to analyze what she herself knew about the pink-haired girl.

Her teammates were Sasuke and Naruto. Well, that was useless. Neither of them were around Konoha anymore, although it had been rumored that Naruto would be coming back soon. Still, she couldn't count on him for information.

Kakashi was her sensei. He should know a lot about her by now. She could go ask him, but she doubted he would take her seriously, since she was one of Gai's students.

The "Rookie Nine" as they had been lovingly dubbed, and had a good chance of being referred to for the rest of their lives, and probably longer, must know _something_ about her likes and dislikes. She could hunt them down one by one.

She fell into the bench, head hanging over the back and arms out in an exasperated manner, as she realized she had just upped her workload by 6 times if she pursued her last option. But it was the best one she had come up with so far. And she really didn't need to talk to all of the "rookies" around, just enough to get as much information on Sakura as possible.

But, now she had to look at what she knew about the rest of the group to figure out where to find them. She sat upright again to get into her thinking pose, but her eye caught something much more helpful to her predicament. Kiba and Hinata were walking toward her, well, toward Ichiraku anyway, but their eyes were on her, probably due to her previously distressed pose. She raised a hand to greet them, and then noticed they were holding hands. Could they be on a date? Should she bother them while they're on a date? She knew she wouldn't really mind being bothered, as long as it was brief and not too troubling. She knew Hinata wouldn't mind, but Kiba was another story.

Her inner turmoil was all for naught though, as the adorable couple waved back and trotted over to where she was sitting.

"Hi Tenten-san, are you ok?" Hinata asked, referring to her previously collapsed position. Tenten smiled, "Yeah, just got a little flabbergasted for a awhile, but I figured things out. How are you, two." She added, a little sparkle in her eye. While she was a serious ninja, she was also a bit of a hopeless romantic. Hinata blushed a little and Kiba grinned.

"We were on our way to get some dinner.I'd ask if you want to come, but," he raised the hand that held Hinata's, "you know."

"Oh, yeah, I completely understand," she said, waving her right hand downcasually,"but, before you go, do you mind if I ask you something?It might sound weird..." Hinata and Kiba exchanged a look, then Kiba shrugged, "Sure. Lay it on us."

"What do you know about Sakura-chan? Like, what does she like, what doesn't she like, where does she hang out…" she lingered as she saw their puzzled expressions. Perhaps asking the rookies wasn't such a brilliant idea.

"Well, I know she likes perfume. Strong perfume. Normally with a flower fragrance, like Lilac or Lily." Kiba offered.

"And I know she works in the hospital with Tsunade-sama." Hinata added, "She's there a lot." Tenten clapped her hands together and jumped up.

"That's exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks you two," she bowed quickly, "and have fu-un," she said in a singsong voice as she winked and lightly jogged away, toward her apartment.That was enough information for today. She could find out some more tomorrow.

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Yeah, pretty lame ending, but whatevs. I'll make up for it later. 


	2. Carry Me Home

_MisChibiOus_: Thanks for the review. you got the first pairing/love triangle right on the head. Sadly, there will be no Naru/Hina/Kiba. Hinata is Kiba's girl in my mind. And I will see if I can work in a little Shika/Tem for you (I'm fond of that pairing as well).

Please enjoy.

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**Chapter 2: Carry Me Home**

She was jarred awake by the sharp pings of small, hard projectiles bouncing off of her window pane. Groggily, she reached for her clock, pulling it close to her face so she could read the hands, then groaned. It was only 5:05, there was no way she was rolling out of bed this early. Maybe if she ignored him he'd just go away and come back at a more decent hour, like when they could see by the light of the sun.

"Tenten-chan!" She leapt up, unprepared to hear her name, or that voice. She was almost afraid to look at the window, but slowly turned toward it anyway. There was Lee's head, in all it's bowl-cut, fuzzy eyebrow-ed glory. As she was getting ready to tell him off a thought suddenly dawned on her. Lee couldn't use chakra like everyone else. She was on the second floor, with no trees in close proximity.

She stood up, walked over, opened the window, stuck her head out, brought it back in, looked at Lee, and said, "I'll be down in five minutes." He smiled and released his hold of her windowsill, falling painlessly to the ground.

Once she was sure he had scampered far enough away she changed out of her simple pajamas (a yellow tanktop and a pair of blue shorts) and into her training gear. After grabbing her forehead protector she hopped out the window, landing gracefully on her lawn. She looked up her window. Lee had been supporting himself effortlessly by the strength of his fingertips. He had made it look like he was casually resting his hands on her window sill.

As Lee led her to his favorite training area she did her hair, pulling the strands into the buns everyone was accustomed to her wearing.

She was a little anxious about training one on one with Lee. She knew he worked twenty times harder than her on nearly everything, and quite frankly, she was afraid she wouldn't be able to keep up.

They walked into a clearing with four trees moderately spaced in the middle. The trunks looked extremely worn, as though they'd been kicked thousands of times. She cast a side glance at Lee, and realized they probably had.

Lee stood in the center of the trees, hands on his hips, and took a deep, cleansing breath.

"Ready Tenten-chan?"

Whether she was or not, she was there. "Sure, what're we working on today?"

"Since you're far more proficient than I with long range weapons, I can't help you with that, and I don't really think you need help on that." He smiled in an almost charming way, and she couldn't help but smile back. "So I thought," he continued, "it would be more beneficial to work on your taijutsu"

He looked so pleased and excited she couldn't tell him she _hated_ taijutsu. That was the original reason she took to the ranged attacks, and then it just turned out she had a knack for throwing sharp projectiles and hitting her targets.

But, she supposed learning taijutsu would benefit her a lot. No one at this point expects hand-to-hand combat from her, and to be able to bust it out in the middle of a match would give her quite the upper hand. She thought back to her battle years ago with Temari, who she had heard was a jounin now, and how it might have had different results if she practiced taijutsu rather than always relying on her aim.

"Okay, what do we do first?"

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By the end of the day Tenten was so exhausted she didn't know if she'd be able to make it all the way home. It was glaringly obvious that she was nowhere near Lee's level, but she was proud of herself for sticking through the whole day, rather than pinning him to a tree with her shuriken and running away, as she had contemplated doing at least twice every hour.

About a quarter of a mile away from her house her legs completely gave out, and she felt herself falling back towards the ground. _Well damn, _she thought unenthusiastically. She didn't try to brace herself, so at first she didn't notice when she failed to hit the ground. It took her a few seconds to realize she was being supported by a pair of strong arms.

"Oh, thanks." She said as she tried to focus her tired eyes on the face above her.

"What happened to you?" Suddenly she didn't need her eyes anymore. She knew that voice all too well.

"I was training one-on-one with Lee." She answered, hoping it would be explanation enough. She tried to read his face for any kind of emotion, but he remained as cold and impassive towards her as ever. But then, to her surprise, he spoke.

"That's quite ambitious of you. You know how that guy trains."

"Firsthand," she said as he finally brought her upright again and let her go.

"Thanks," she said, taking a step and fallingonce moreas her knees involuntarily buckled. She silently cursed herself for looking and acting and being so weak in front of Neji as he caught her again. But this time instead of helping her stand he scooped up her legs and began walking toward her house, holding her like a groom carrying his bride over ther threshold.

"Wha-what are you doing?" She stammered, blood rushing all too quickly to her cheeks as she lay quite helplessly in his arms. It'd be kind of romantic if it weren't so terribly embarrassing.

"Getting you home." He answered simply. "You really shouldn't let Lee overwork you like this." Her face got even redder, both due to the situation, and her embarrassment and annoyance that he considered her too weak to train with Lee.

"It's not his fault. He said I could stop whenever I wanted." She argued without much force, not havingenough energy to be involved in a conversation. She fought to keep her eyelids open as he carried her the rest of the way home in silence, hoping no one she knew would see them intheir currentsituation. But she knew it was in vain, she just wasn't that lucky.

"This is far enough." She said as he stepped onto her front porch. He nodded, and she was relieved he didn't push the idea of carrying her to her room. Well, she thought she was relieved. A small, barely conscious part of her wanted him to insist he bring her up to her room himself to make sure she got there okay. God, she must be delirious.

He stood her in front of the door, allowing her to use his arm to steady herself. Sadly, she knew after tonight she'd have to work even harder to win his acknowledgement. What rotten luck she had.

"Thanks Neji." She said as she turned the knob. She almost bowed, but thought better of it after a few seconds of swaying just from standing upright on her own.

"Don't mention it." He answered, watching her until she got through the frame and closed the door.

Once inside she took two steps away from the door and collapsed again, this time falling to her knees. Luckily, they hadn't worked on the upper body too much, so she was able to move her body across the paneled floor to the stairs using her arms. If she had had any extra energy she might have laughed at herself and how she must look at this moment, pulling herself along like an infant who hadn't grasped the fundamentals of crawling yet. But when she reached the staircase that might as well have been a mountain,all thoughts of this being a humorous situation flew from her mind.

"Come on, you can do this," shegrimaced to herself as her strong arms gripped the banister and pulled her body up into a precarious standing position. Leaning heavily on the railing she willed her legs to move slowly upward, one stair at a time.

By the time she reached the top step she was so excited and exhausted she just let herself fall forward and dragged her body into her room, hoisted herself onto her bed, and was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

Outside, a dark haired, white-eyed boy, well, really more of a man now, nodded toward the house, then turned to walk off into the night.

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So, do tell me your thoughts. Are characters OOC much? This is my first try at a fic not centralized around team 8 or random side characters, so i'm not used to following the rules of very set characterization.


	3. Tenten's Questing

A/N: Since I am quite inconsistent I'm dropping the use of –chan and –san from when characters address others. I will, however, keep –sama, because I like the way it sounds, and I don't feel awkward using it.

Added in several more couplings, although brief, so if you hate them, they're over quickly, and if you love them, reread to your heart's content.

oh, quick note: _thoughts, _**writings**. that should be easy enough to follow.

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**Chapter 3: Tenten's Questing**

Luckily for Tenten, Lee didn't come to fetch her at 5 in the morning for more training. And he didn't come for her at 6, or 7, or 8, or 9, so when she woke up on her own at 10 she was feeling quite refreshed, although a little concerned that Lee hadn't come for her. She was sure when they'd parted the other day he had joyfully shouted that he'd see her tomorrow, and that they'd work on her speed. She flexed her calf muscles, wondering if they were already stronger after the beating they had taken the other day. She was almost afraid to try and stand, but took a deep breath anyway and flung her long legs over the edge of her mattress.

Casting off her covers and sitting upright, she realized she was still wearing her clothes from the other day, and smelled terrible.

_Oh well, all the more reason I have to stand up_, she thought to herself as she braced her arms and pushed her body up off of the bed. Thankfully, her legs held strong, and although they were incredibly sore, carried her easily to the bathroom, where she washed away the stink of sweat and dirt and tree bark, then soaked in the tub for a good 30 minutes, allowing her muscles to relax a little bit more before putting them to the task of carrying her all around Konoha for more Sakura research.

By the time she finished soaking, got dressed, and left her place it was a little past noon. Due to the months of peace and the completion of the restoration of Konoha the streets were bustling with activity. Although she loved her life as a ninja, there was also a certain joy in seeing the hidden village behaving like any other community. Anbu members milling around like they're just average villagers, lethal shinobi playing with their children in the park. She grinned widely as she saw Asuma and Kurenai taking a leisurely stroll together down a pathway, his hand on the small of her back, her right hand protectively on her slightly bulging stomach. Godaime had started a pool on the new family, and people were placing bets on which of the two jounins would hold back from the shinobi lifestyle to raise their child. Tenten personally had her money on Asuma playing the role of stay-at-home-Dad. She knew Kurenai, even in her very pregnant state, often went out training with her team, while Asuma seemed more content to discuss baby names over barbecue with his group.

A little further into the park she saw Kiba and Hinata playing fetch with Akamaru, the two chuunins clearly enjoying their time off. She laughed a little as the full-grown dog leapt onto Hinata, paws on her chest, licking her face while the Hyuuga heiress laughed freely. Tenten wondered if his human counterpart ever felt jealous over such signs of affection, and glanced back at Kiba, who indeed looked a little perturbed. Maybe it was because he was ready to throw a stick with no one to fetch it, or perhaps it was due to his best friend's tongue all over his girlfriend's face. It was impossible to tell, so she continued on with her walk, sure the trio would work it out.

On the outskirts of the park she saw Shino diligently collecting bugs. One would think he had enough bugs, but apparently not.

She made her way over to the wooded area where he was working, but slowed down considerably as she approached him. She herself had never exchanged words with the Aburame prodigy, and she knew he was quite anti-social, even among his own team. Would Shino know anything about Sakura? She found it very unlikely, and was ready to turn around when she realized he waiting for her to say something, as his sunglasses were level with her eyes and his hand hovered unmoving over the tree.

_Oh well, I've already disturbed him, might as well ask him._

"Hey, Shino. I was wondering, would you by any chance know some things about Sakura's likes and dislikes?" She asked in a very cheerful, amiable way. He just stood there, emotionless, unreadable, staring at her, or maybe not. For all she knew he had fallen asleep in that position and she was moronically asking a sleeping man questions.

"She doesn't like most bugs," he said just as Tenten was ready to sneak away as to not disturb the possibly napping ninja, "but she likes butterflies a lot." And with that he resumed his work. Tenten bowed, even though he was no longer paying attention to her, or maybe he was, who knew.

She sat on a bench near the main street and pulled out her little pink notepad from her back pocket. She thought it was appropriate for keeping her notes on Sakura information. Fittingly enough with her newest information, there was a small, white butterfly embossed on the bottom left corner of the cover.

**works at hospital under supervision of Tsunade-sama **

**likes perfume (flowery: lilac, lily) **

**doesn't like bugs, except butterflies.**

She jotted down the last line as her stomach rumbled loud enough to cause a small child to glance over her way. With a start she realized she had completely skipped both breakfast and lunch and hadn't eaten anything since early yesterday evening when Lee had generously allowed a 20 minute dinner break between the 500 reps of tree kicking and the 500 counts of jumping rope.

Not wanting to pass out from hunger (after her fiasco last night the embarrassment would be way too much to bear), she stood up and began walking west, going into the first restaurant she came across, which happened to be an all-you-can-eat barbecue place. Due to her near-starvation, all-you-can-eat sounded really good to her at this point, plus she was a big fan of barbecue, and it smelled absolutely delicious once she had her head in the door.

As she was walking over to an empty table she heard the unmistakable shout of Yamanaka Ino, her voice filling the restaurant like no one else's could. Turning slightly, Tenten saw the cause of the outburst. Chouji's chopsticks were in his mouth, his cheeks puffed out with a big smile on his face, eyes narrowed dangerously towards Ino as her own chopsticks were poised above the now empty grill in the middle of the table.

"I was cooking that for ME!" She shouted, now jabbing the chopsticks at her supposed lunch date.

"No one will eat the last piece of pork but me!" He shouted triumphantly as he took the chopsticks out of his mouth and thrust them into the air. Ino fumed, but Tenten knew she wouldn't be angry for long. Chouji would make up for it by buying her ice cream or taking her to a movie, but then would take one too many "tastes," or eat all the popcorn before the show started, and the cycle would continue. It was just the way they worked, and everyone had accepted it as another part of their lives.

"Hey Tenten!" Ino was waving her over, "Sorry, did we disturb your meal?"

"No, I just got in here, I haven't eaten yet." She answered as she trotted over. Ino smiled widely.

"Why don't you join us? We were just about to get another helping." She asked, scooting over to the left of the booth and patting the seat next to her. Tenten looked uncertainly from Ino to Chouji.

"Thanks, but I don't want to impose–"

"Impose on what? It's not like we're on a _date_," she looked pointedly at Chouji, "Men act like _gentlemen _on _dates._" She looked back up at Tenten, all smiles once more, "So come on and join us. It'll be fun." Chouji looked a little downcast, but nodded, indicating he knew he was in the wrong, and this was his punishment. Not really wanting the wrath of Ino on her next, Tenten complied with the offer and sat down next to the blonde. It took her a moment to appreciate what a perfect opportunity this was for her to get some more information.

"Hey, I'm, um, helping out a friend, and, would you guys know some of the inner workings of Sakura?" Chouji, looked up at Tenten, then leaned back in his seat, hands behind his head as he watched Ino, whose eyes had gone wide with excitement as her face looked like it was about to burst with information.

"Well, she likes good looking guys, so she might be considered really shallow, but I think she likes guys she can help, or assist in some way, even more than hot guys. She likes the chase more than being chased. She loves daisies, which I find kind of funny because they're rather common and plain compared to other flowers, especially concerning her taste in men.

"She can be pretty cutthroat when she needs to be. She's not afraid to bleed for the people she loves, but I think she also likes it when people risk themselves for her too. She's not as vain as people think she is, but she still is kind of vain. She really likes her hair. She's self conscious about her giant forehead, which is probably why she spends so much time preening herself. She loves sweets, especially cookies, but she normally won't eat them, but I think she really likes the gesture.

"Obviously her favorite color is pink, all different shades of it. She doesn't like it when guys throw themselves at her (Tenten starred that one) but would rather they ease into her life. She loves romance, all those smutty romance books, not that porn that Jiraiya writes, but the really romantic ones, she reads those all the time," she trailed off as Tenten scribbled furiously into the little notebook.

"And she doesn't eat enough." Chouji added, signaling a waiter to bring them more food to grill.

Exhausted, Tenten fell back into her seat, looking at Ino, who wasn't even fazed by her long winded explanation of the girl who was, wasn't, and now might once again be, her dearest friend.

The trio ate lunch, chatting about ninja business as Tenten's quest seemed to have filled Ino's gossip quota for the day. They talked about the past jounin exam, who would be ready for the upcoming exam, what they were planning on doing once they became jounins, etc. After eating her fill of the food she pulled out her wallet and tried to give Choiji some money for her meal, but he refused to take it, insisting that a gentleman never lets a lady pay for a meal. She glanced over at Ino, who was smiling approvingly at the large man sitting across from her.

Before she stood up she realized she was missing one of the availablerookies in her quest, and in an attempt to go 6 for 6 on her info chart, decided she would hunt him down. And if anyone would know where he was, they would.

"Do you guys know where I can find Shikamaru?" The two shared a wide grin before Ino turned to Tenten.

"He's been out on a "mission" strengthening our "friendly bonds" with Suna." She raised her eyebrows suggestively and bit her lower lip, indicating the relationship between their dear, lazy-ass genius and the brilliant fan-wielder of Suna was getting quite juicy. Tenten couldn't help but grin along with them. A hot and heavy liaison was better than being interrogated any day. She doubted he would have been able to give her any information anyway, and Ino had supplied her with more than enough fodder to feed Lee for days.

Waving goodbye over her shoulder as she walked through the door, she heard Chouji call the waiter over for yet another helping of food. It would never cease to amaze her how much Akimichis could eat.

She had barely stepped out of the restaurant before she heard her name being shouted out by someone behind her. Turning, she saw the pink-haired girl she'd been pseudo-stalking for two days now running up to her with a large smile on her face.

"You're looking better. Good to see you on your feet again." She winked, and Tenten looked at her, confusion etching her facial features.

"On my fee- Ohhh," her brown eyes went wide, "you mean last night?" She said fearfully, knowing she wasn't lucky enough to have had that situation gone unnoticed. Sakura nodded, still smiling in her "good for you!" way that made Tenten's stomach flop a little.

"No, listen, no, Neji was just helping out an old teammate. And carrying me home was the quickest way to go about doing things, so, that's what he did." She hastily explained, not wanting word to get to Neji that people thought they were going together. Sakura gave her a "suuure" look and smiled all the wider.

"Well, I thought you two looked like an adorable couple. You should convince him to go on a date with you." She said, winking before bounding off, leaving Tenten alone with her mortification. She couldn't ask Neji out on a date, that was a ridiculous idea. Not only would he turn her down, but he might even laugh in her face. Not that Neji ever laughed, but such a concept might elicit some guffaws out of him at her expense.

Not ten minutes after Sakura had left she ran into the man who was directly or indirectly responsible for everything in her life for the past few days.

"Hey Lee, I was a little surprised you didn't come get me for training today." She said with a smile that indicated she had been a little concerned, but at the same time was grateful for the break. He simply shrugged his green-spandex clad shoulders.

"I was going to, but Neji came by last night and told me that we shouldn't have training today. At first I thought it was because he didn't want us to become stronger, but then I realized that was silly, Neji would never hold us back. He probably really wants us to become jounins so we can all be at the same level as him again." Tenten didn't have the heart to tell him that they'd never been, and probably never would be, at Neji's level, no matter how much they trained and worked. Like so many other times she just nodded and smiled, preferring his upbeat outlook every time she agreed with him over his defeated attitude.

"So we'll train tomorrow morning, and become stronger!" He shouted, punching the air victoriously. She nodded again, wondering when she should begin her own training of getting Lee groomed to meet Sakura's standards. As she watched her slightly outlandish teammate she believed those sessions might leave her more exhausted than Lee's vigorous workout did.

It suddenly struck her that Neji had been looking out for her, making Lee cancel practice, giving her time to recuperate and regain her strength. Was he concerned for her? Could he possibly have feelings for her other than "there's that girl that was on my team?" Nah, he just didn't want to get stuck carrying her home again. That was all. Wasn't it?

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ah, fun times. I think this was my favorite chapter to write so far. I like trying to work in as many characters as possibly, so no one's left out. 


	4. Super Detective of Love

To : FireDragonBL, twighlight16, RedClyde, wilwomg23, healing vision, harukakanata, micalily, Wendytigges, lele, dragonzair, bakusensei, and InuBecka

Thank you for the wonderful reviews! I'm so glad you're all enjoying this so much, and to those concerned about getting to the "good fluff," I like to build up to it. I think it gives it a little more 'ooomff' when it happens that way. and I'm a sucker for drawn out romances…

and to dragonzair, yes, you can call me Bee

Here's hoping I can still entertain you all with my silly little story…

And this chapter is super dedicated to Natsumi Ai, even though the whole thing is for her, she inspired me to write this specific chapter, and the title comes from one of her previous comments. so yay!

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**Chapter 4: Super Detective of Love**

The next morning Tenten was up and ready by the time Lee showed up outside her window. She knew she owed it to him for giving her yesterday off.

They began training by running around the village walls ten times. She was already a decent runner, not nearly as fast as Lee (who was?) but she had good endurance and was able to keep up a quick and steady pace. Even after she told Lee she wouldn't be offended if he ran ahead he stayed back with her tempo, saying it was more fun to jog with somebody than run really fast alone.

She had to admit, it was kind of nice. The sun was just rising, it was cool without being cold, dew was glistening on the trees and blades of glass, and everything was still. Even Lee refrained from talking too much noise and just enjoyed the rhythmic pounding of their feet against the dirt.

It was a nice way to start their day of intense training, working Tenten's arms and legs through repetitive kicks and punches to trees and poorly-constructed dummies. He was turning her hands into weapons, not just a vessel through which her personal arsenal was thrown. Although she never left the session as weak as she had the first time, there was rarely much energy to spare.

This routine continued for a week before Lee thought Tenten was ready to begin sparring. She was a little shocked to realize in all their years on a team together she had never gone one-on-one with Lee. Probably because their fighting styles were so extremely different, but still, one would think Gai would have pitted them against each other at least once, if only to see what would happen.

Sufficient to say, she was terribly nervous as she got into the tai-jutsu stance opposite Lee, left arm behind her back, right hand extended in a challenging poise. His face looked intense, none of his usual cheerfulness present as they squared off. There was nothing playful about this spar, and she knew she couldn't hold back, although in the pit of her stomach she hoped he would.

He suddenly attacked, running and lunging at her with a roundhouse kick to the face. She blocked it, but not without staggering backwards a bit, knocking her off kilter. She regained her balance in time to dodge Lee's next attack and spot her opening. She attacked, but he easily blocked both feet and her fist, then tossed her to the side, where she quickly flipped and attacked again, this time from a different angle, and the same thing happened.

Her hands itched to take out a kunai, shurikan, scythe, anything to throw, but she resisted, and charged once again, determined to get at least one hit in before the match was over. Lee was mostly playing defense, throwing easy punches now and then to keep Tenten's awareness up, but that was it. It was very much like when Gai had taken them out on one of their first training sessions and demanded they came at him with everything they had, no holding back. Of course none of them had so much as scratched Gai, but he beamed proudly towards them at the end of the day, proclaiming they would become his elite warriors. Lee had been beyond thrilled, Neji had looked annoyed, and Tenten had smiled.

And now here she was in a situation so eerily similar to that one so long ago. Lee looked so much like Gai now practically the only difference was she was using hand-to-hand combat rather than her usual practice of long-range weaponry.

It was when she reached up to grab a tree branch and he slid under her that the spar turned into a disaster. While she firmly held the branch he wrapped his feet around her left leg and, not noticing her death grip on the branch above her, twisted it smartly. HE had expected her to spin neatly in the air before falling to the ground for a dramatic end to their spar, but instead they each heard a sickening crunch before she felt the pain shoot from her leg throughout her entire body. It took a great part of her not to scream as her mind throbbed with intensity.

"TENTEN!" Lee shouted, leaping up and taking her by the shoulders. "Tenten, I'm so sorry!" He bawled, gently hoisting her into his arms as she slowly released her hold on the branch, prints of her fingernails now embedded into its bark.

"It's okay Lee," she tried to say through gritted teeth, but she didn't sound very convincing. She winced visibly as he picked up her legs, but knew there was no other way to go about it.

He rushed her through the streets of Konoha, trying his best not to jostle her too much as tears leaked continuously from his eyes while he repetitively shouted "I'm sorry Tenten!" which of course attracted the stares of everyone they passed. She wasn't in so much pain that she didn't notice, and was actually able to ignore the pain for a brief moment as she fumed over the fact that she was once again unable to walk and being carried in the arms of a teammate.

"It's all my fault!" Lee shouted as he ran up to the receptionist at the hospital, practically laying Tenten on the counter as he sobbed and she looked apologetically at the woman behind the counter.

"We were sparring, and I'm pretty sure my leg's broken, possibly in two places," she explained. The woman nodded, then shouted for a nurse and a wheelchair as she began writing things down on a paper Tenten couldn't see. Within seconds a young man wheeled a chair up to them, telling Lee to gently set her in the seat. He did, so, crying the whole time. The nurse glanced from Lee to Tenten, no doubt wondering what exactly a girl like her was doing with a guy like him.

"Get her to a room," the woman instructed the nurse, handing him a piece of paper before turning to Lee and giving him a small stack of forms. "I'm going to need you to be a big boy and fill these out for your friend, okay?" She said in a very maternal voice. It was the last thing Tenten heard before she was wheeled down the white hallway and around a corner, down another hallway, and finally into a small, starch-white room.

"Someone will be with you shortly," he said as he attached the paper to the outer door, then, bowing quickly, ran out the door. She sat still, trying to not think about the pain coursing through her leg. She attempted to focus on how Lee was doing, filling out all her forms. She couldn't imagine him getting very far, seeing as he was infatuated with Sakura for years, yet didn't know even the basics about her.

A young woman who looked a few years older than Tenten came into the room. She looked very ordinary, but pleasant, with dark blue hair pinned neatly to her head and one of the most comforting smiles ever.

"Hi there, all the medic-nins are busy at the moment. But don't worry, I'm fully certified to examine you." She untied Tenten's forehead protector and placed it on the counter, then held the back of her hand against her bare forehead. Satisfied with her temperature gauge, she pulled up a chair and began gingerly touching the mangled leg, causing Tenten to squeeze her eyes shut in an effort to ignore the unintentional torture she was being put through. Finally the nurse stopped and looked up at her, a warm expression on her face.

"Lucky you. One break, pretty clean. I'll be able to set this, but I'm afraid you'll have to wait an hour or so for the bone-mending specialist. How's your pain tolerance?" Tenten forced open her right eye, "I'd say less than good," she grimaced. The nurse smiled kindly and stood up, rummaging through the cabinets on the far wall. She came back carrying a white rag.

"Here hon, bite on this while I set the bones."

There was a second of searing pain, causing Tenten to bite down so hard on the fabric she thought she might choke. But then the pain subsided to a dull throb, and when she looked down her leg looked straight again, no more nauseating bump in the middle of her shin. The nurse was beaming proudly at her.

"You took that very well," she congratulated as she fit a simple brace onto the leg, forcing her to keep it straight, then gently placed it back onto the wheelchair. "Now," she said as she took the cloth from Tenten, "I'll need you to just sit tight for awhile. Want me to go get a few magazines for you to read and some medicine for the pain?"

"Oh, that would be great! Also, there should be a boy with, um, a bowl cut and green body suit in the waiting room. If you could please check up on him, see how he's doing filling out those forms."

"Sure thing hon."

Tenten sat patiently, twiddling her thumbs, realizing how lucky she was it wasn't her arm that broke. Sure, the medic-nins could mend bones, but she wasn't sure how well everything worked once they were done. What if they accidentally crossed nerves or something, shorting out her trained fingers? Was that even possible?

"Here ya go, hon," the nurse said as she set a pile of magazines on the small blue table near her chair and placed 2 white pills and a glass of water next it, which Tenten immediately thanked her for and downed in one shot, causing the nurse to laugh a bit. "And your friend got all the forms turned in, so no worries there." She stared at the nurse in shock as she bowed and exited the room, but realized that Lee must have been wildly guessing for most of the information, unable to admit to the world he knew so little about his teammate. She should probably go check it out, she had plenty of time to kill.

When she opened the door she caught a glimpse of pink strands flouncing past. Poking her head out the door, it was quickly confirmed that Sakura had just walked by.

_Eh, forms can wait,_ she thought as her hands gripped the rims of the wheels and she propelled herself out the door.

She moved along the hallway quickly but casually, not wanting to gather too much attention, but unwilling to lose sight of Sakura either. She found that her natural ability to throw and aim also extended to manually controlling wheelchairs. After a few moments she was quite adept at turning, slowing down, speeding up, and weaving through people.

On a whim she took her hair down, knowing it would be a little harder to recognize her without the buns. She could probably even blend in nicely, no one would take notice of the plain-looking renegade-wheelchair-bound girl roaming the halls, casually trailing a medic-nin in training. Besides, she really didn't want Sakura to know she was following, well, let's be honest, stalking her, especially while she was working. Besides, she needed to document the pink-haired kunoichi in her natural environment.

Sakura stopped every now and again to peek into rooms, ask how the patient was feeling today, generic, friendly banter. Tenten tried to assess the patients she talked to, but there was no set category. They were young, old, male, female, shinobi, civilians, and their conditions varied in degrees of seriousness.

_I guess she's just an honestly nice and caring person_, she rationalized as she continued to follow the medic-nin. When she got to the last room in the hallway Tenten noticed she stood straighter, knocked louder, and smiled brighter as she opened the door, then stepped inside the room. Tenten pretended to be busy reading the chart on the wall across from her as she waited for Sakura to come out. Every now and then she's hear a soft giggle come from the room. She definitely hadn't laughed with any of the other patients. As Tenten searched the walls while trying to hear what they were talking about without appearing to be eavesdropping, Sakura walked out of the room backwards, smiling and waving before continuing her rounds. Tenten praised her good luck as the door was left open and she'd be able to see who was able to captivate so much of Sakura's seemingly precious time.

Rolling by, she ever-so-casually stretched her neck to the right, pretending to work out a kink as her eyes drifted towards the god-among-men that was sitting in the bed before her, shirtless no less. Yes indeed, even slightly battered, Izumo was one hot tamale.

So Ino had been right, Sakura did like her men to be extremely attractive. And as much as Tenten loved Lee, if he ever really wanted to get Sakura's attention they would have to do a lot of work.

She continued discreetly following her until she went through a "Personnel Only" door. Perhaps if she had had full use of her legs she would have swiped a medic-nin outfit and tried her luck beyond the door, but with the wheelchair she was far to conspicuous. Dejected, she rolled back to her room before remembering her original reason for opening the door. She had to go and correct her forms.

Wheeling herself up to the desk, she smiled pleasantly towards the receptionist, who looked at her expectantly, showing no sign of recognizing her as the girl from before. Did she really wear her hair up _that _often that no one knew who she was with it down? She never imagined hair could have such a power.

"Hi, I'm Tenten, my friend handed some forms in for me, and I just wanted to make sure they were all correct." A sign of acknowledgment fell over the woman's face as she sifted through the papers and handed her a few, then smiled and went back to whatever it was she had been doing previous to Tenten's interruption. Probably a crossword puzzle or something.

Tenten rolled away a few feet then settled in her chair, preparing herself for much erasing. She was amazed to find almost everything was right, from her date of birth to her blood-type to her past injuries. Was he just a really good guesser, or did he actually know and remember all this stuff about her? Regardless, she looked over to where Lee was sitting silently, reading a _Youth Today _magazine, and smiled. When he saw her grinning at him his face went red and he slunk lower behind his magazine, as though to hide from her.

_That's weird,_ she began to think before she heard the doors open.

"Lee, what'd you do? Where's Tenten?" Both team members swiveled their head to see Neji standing in the doorway, arms crossed, brows furrowed. Lee pointed towards the hallway he had seen Tenten pushed through rather than to where she was sitting in front of the desk.

"She's in a room back there. They said she'd be fine! They promised me everything was taken care of, nothing to worry about!" He said passionately, setting his magazine down.

"What'd you _do _to her?" Neji sounded almost venomous. He was never very warm towards Lee, but Tenten had never heard this tone of voice before.

"We were just sparring a little, and it kind of got out of hand–"

"You mean you forgot who you were fighting and just pummeled her?"

"No! I would never purposely hurt Tenten!"

She watched with wide, brown eyes as they argued back and forth about her. Didn't they realize she was right there? Could they not see her? She timidly touched her face to make sure she was still physically there.

"Dammit Lee, don't you ever think before you do stuff like that?"

"I did think! That's why I was training her!"

"Excuse me," the nurse who had been helping Tenten earlier was peeking around the corner of the hallway entry, "could you boys keep it down? You're distracting the medics. Oh, Miss Tenten, we'll be ready for you in about 10 minutes." She added when she saw the wide-eyed kunoichi next to the counter. The boys slowly turned to see what at first glance appeared to be an attractive young woman with wavy brown hair reaching a few inches past her shoulders, but a closer look at her face yielded Tenten's features.

"Tenten! I didn't even recognize you! I thought you were just a random cute girl smiling at me before!"

"Lee–"

"How's your leg?"

"It'll be fine in about 20 minutes Neji–"

"Wait! Where's your forehead protector!"

"In the other room Lee–"

"Are you letting her take a few days off from training?"

"I'll be fine-"

"I never make her do anything she doesn't feel ready for."

"That's ok-"

"Yeah, you just break her legs."

"That's IT!" Tenten shouted, grabbing everyone's attention. "Neji, thanks for your concern, but I'll be perfectly fine. Lee's been a great instructor, and this was just a little mishap. And Lee," she turned her hardened glare from one boy to the next, "I'll be at training tomorrow. Now both of you go home." She said before swiveling her chair toward the hallway and rolling past wide-eyed nurses and medics back to her room, leaving Neji and Lee to stare after her a moment, then turn and glare at each other, neither showing any sign off leaving until the other one did.

* * *

Sorry to give Tenten a kind of Clark Kent/Superman complex, but I thought it could be funny, since we've never seen her with her hair down officially.

Please tell me your thoughts on this; like it, don't like it, OOC-ness and what not. I love reviews.


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